Proof that One Person Can Make a Difference

Category: State Attorney

In watching the press conference by the State Attorney’s office on Thursday, I was in a state of awe at the crazy shit I heard. Bill Eddins saying “Massatusetts” multiple times distracted me, but the show wasn’t over yet. Sir David of Wonderland made a statement that seems to be a long string of randomness that came to his mind as he spoke. He said:

“For those of you who don’t know, we lead the nation in our solve rate…. We are always in the 80-85 percentile solve rate in Escambia County and that is only due to the cooperation of the State Attorney’s Office and all the associated agencies……..FDLE is one of the preeminent agencies in the United States probably rivals the Federal Bureau of Investigation with their lab capabilities.”

There is a saying: There are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. This seems to be all of the above. I’m not sure if any of that statement is true.

FDLE reports this statistic:

In speaking to veteran deputies about what “clearance rates” really are, I found out why those numbers may not be accurate, specifically due to internal practices inside the ECSO. A clearance of a crime, to the average person, implies the case is “solved”. That is not the case. Cases can be cleared as inactive (no further leads can be developed), closed due to special circumstances (Example: cases where investigators have evidence of a perpetrator, but no means to close the due to fact that person is already incarcerated, unlocated or dead. ie Danielle Bell) or just closed due to the state declining to prosecute. All of these types of clearances are bunched together with “solved” cases.

June 2015

“Hobbs argued in the filing FDLE’s “conscious, willful and deliberate attempt” to conceal the DNA information in a timely fashion hurt his ability to track down leads and prepare for the defense of Segura, who faces the death penalty.”

Jan 2016

The report says it will take between $9-32 million to test the old kits and that it will take 3-9 years for the testing to happen.

Now I don’t know about anyone else but this does not seem like the work of a”preminent agency”. The backlog on rape kits has the biggest egregious connotations. In some states, the statute of limitation for rape will expire before the rape kits can be tested. Then there is always the built in defense argument of sample degeneration when biologicals have been sitting for years before testing. This is a no brainer. It green lights sexual assault, because the DNA backlog is literally not going to catch up with offenders. While people are still arrested, the DNA is usually the make-or-break evidence in cases of rape. If this describes “preeminence”, then God help us all.

Back to the Sheriff’s diarrhea of misinformation, in talking to sources within the ECSO, it is clear that they were subverted in this case, despite the lip service as to the ECSO assisting in this case. No one in investigations knew anything about this case until the press conference. That should be a red flag to Morgan. It appears, in an effort to mitigate gross error, other agencies are recognizing the liability of this agency. Can’t say that it could happen to a better person.

My last observation from this crazy press conference has to do with the intentions of the State Attorney’s office after they extradite the suspect from “Massatusetts”. Bill Eddins said:

“Charges from our office filed in this case are for second degree murder. That is for extradition purposes….Upon extradition, our office will be seeking an indictment of first degree or felony murder….which could result in a life sentence or death”

What? So for purposes of extradition, we are going to do a bait and switch to get the suspect to make our job easier. That’s what I heard. Why not seek an indictment for first degree or felony murder now before extradition? I have been told by a veteran investigator that this is a standard procedure, no intent to deceive, but why the shift of intention if not to deceive? I may just be naive but if I were a suspect sitting in a jail, thinking that I was being charged with second degree (non-death penalty) murder, I might make a decision, believing in good faith that was what was waiting for me. Then to have the tables turned after the fact, seems reminiscent of what Greg Marcille did to Pam Long. …Oh you have immunity but after everything is said and done, we will charge you with bullshit crimes that we knew we were going to charge you with all along.

Deceptive? Hell yeah!

I am a proponent of the law. I know people will not believe it when they read it, but I believe our criminal justice system is founded on good principles and to see dirt bags like Morgan, Marcille, and Eddins lie, manipulate and deceive using those principles disgusts me. I am a law abiding citizen…never been arrested but I don’t trust these jokers to make any moral judgments that affect me. They are sociopaths without the ability to be human. There is no blind justice in this county. It is tainted with politics and double dealing. As I have said before, churning out victims is not the intent of the criminal justice system, but that is what it is in Escambia County every day of the week.

Watch your backs. It doesn’t take much to get you arrested in Escambia County and God know you don’t have to have legitimate evidence to convict you if you are arrested. The game is rigged.

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So in the long line of people who cashed in, exploited and turned a blind eye in the Billings case, I want to welcome Bill Richbourg to the cast of characters who should be on the other side of the bars that they put their clients in. Mr. Richbourg could arguably be the most deplorable of the attorneys who rolled over and played dead in this case. Mr. Richbourg was hired by Gary Sumner to represent him. He paid Mr. Richbourg. For 6 weeks seemingly, work was done to further the defense case for Sumner. But on April 25, 2011, the day set for the jury selection, Mr. Richbourg tells Sumner (as they approach the courtroom) that he could not win this case, Sumner had no option but to take a plea. Richbourg strong-armed a disadvantaged young black man. Then the state had the gall to sue Sumner for the time they wasted for trial.

But the best part here is that Richbourg had an agenda from the onset of representing Sumner. He represented Bud Billings in the adoption fraud suit that somehow left the “stolen” child with the captor. Richbourg organized that circa 1989-90.

Can you say CONFLICT???? Representing a man that is being charged with killing a past client and then tanking the representation? Cheryl Barnes, Gary Sumner’s mother, should be suing this man on Gary’s behalf. Not only unethical, but it rises to level of criminal when he forced Gary into signing away his life rather than actually representing him. Any civil rights lawyers out there should be on top of this.

But the people who failed to do their job in this case is so numerous. Richbourg is just ONE of the highly respected attorneys who dropped the ball.

Tony Henderson forced Lenny Gonzalez into his plea and signed off on the man’s legal mental competence, despite the SSI ruling that states the man has brain damage, dementia, and numerous mental health issues. Also his VAN WAS INOPERABLE. That was a defense within itself, but Henderson managed to negotiate Lenny’s fate which led to his death. Shouldn’t that be beyond malpractice as well?

What about the public defenders who handled Florence & Thornton? There was a huge case for coerced confessions but they never represented their clients. They took the money the state paid them and walked those boys into prison. Now their lives are cast in stone. Statistics say that uneducated black men imprisoned early (18-25) build “criminal capital”. They turn prison into a community that they are comfortable with, can network in, to feel a sense of inclusion into SOMETHING. It is the same psycho-social phenomenon that draws people into gangs. That is on Joel M. Cohen (Florence’s public defender), & Cheryl Alverson (Thornton’s public defender).

Richbourg has a great deal of company in his criminality. I hope to see them punished just like Eddins, Geeker & Sir David.

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So after Mike Thomas was convicted of being a sex offender, the 4 or the 5 deputies that testified as to Thomas’s character overall prior this incident have now become the subject of Internal Affairs investigations for different, very random things since their testimony.

The targeted 4 deputies, according to sources, testified that Thomas was a good cop to their knowledge prior to these charges. The 5th deputy was less definitive about any attributes in Thomas’s past. Apparently, his indifference or lack of positive character testimony neither helped nor hurt the case and left him himself free from retaliation by the vindictive ECSO.

Now this could be coincidental but why hold off 4 simultaneous investigations until the couple of days after the case was over? Surely, if there were questions as to these peoples’ character it might be relevant to their testimony or could these 4 people with 4 different situations become suddenly culpable of these 4 acts within one week’s time? The odds must be astronomical.

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On the same note, a 2 key character witnesses in the most high profile case in Pensacola history got just as lucky. Lonnie Douglas Smith & Tony Eisa testified in Gonzalez Jr’s trial the last week of October, 2010 that Gonzalez Jr. approached them about participating in the robbery. They testified that Gonzalez Jr. was shady and a liar. His character was, in their testimony, that of a person capable of this crime—without a doubt.

Bill Eddins allowed these two men to testify in the trial that took place beginning on 10/25/2010. Strangely enough, Tony Eisa plead guilty to filing a false police report on 10/12/2010 in Santa Rosa County.

ADJUDICATED GUILTY OF FALSE REPORT TO LAW AUTHORITY 10/12/2010

Damn good character witness.

Lonnie Smith is even better story. After being arrested 2/24/2010, Smith was arrested for heroin trafficking, oxy possession, crack and cocaine possession.

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Now despite the fact there was significant diversity in drugs and the weight of the heroin, after almost 8 months, Eddins decided not to prosecute the upstanding Smith, just in time for him to testify against Gonzalez Jr. Funny, how that works…

The judge declined to convict Panhandle Politico publisher Greg Fink despite the six member jury’s guilty recommendation, at a June 17 trial, of failing to include an electioneering disclaimer on political material mailed during the 2014 primary election.

The disclaimer is required to detail who approved and paid for the message.

Electioneering communications are defined as material that may not necessarily directly ask voters to select a particular candidate, but have been mailed close to an election. In this case, the applicable timeframe was within 30 days of the primary election.

The double standard press release came on precipice of Rally 2016 on WSRE–the Sheriff’s closed debate. I have not seen the debate yet but I am told Morgan did not fare well. There were sources that claim after the debate ended Morgan took his microphone off abruptly, threw it down and left in haste.

To support this, just a few minutes ago, the last debate before the election scheduled for next week, was cancelled. The official reason was that there was not enough interest. However, the timing of the cancellation, the lack of coverage on Morgan’s Facebook and lack of coverage by any news outlet under Morgan’s “influence”, an educated person might speculate that Sir David put the kabbash on the last debate.

The multiple State Attorney investigations into wrong-doing on Sheriff Morgan’s behalf has been bad press–albeit not in the mainstream press. There is a great deal of chatter on social media that seems to indicate the Morgan re-election is not going well. This latest series of events appear to be pushing Sheriff Morgan over the edge. He has trouble with composure when he gets angry and of course, anything that threatens his public persona makes him angry. That seems to be a better explanation for the cancellation of this final debate.

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In a not-so surprising move, Greg Marcille issued a press release Friday that after investigating Morgan’s LET Fund mockery, the SAO found “no criminal violations” found. However in a letter attached to the press release, there is indication that the protocol requiring agencies to account for the money they receive, specifically that it meets the standard to justify the statutory mandates of this particular fund, has not been followed. This is funny because there is precedent that such special trust monies spent without the proper follow-up by the agencies, such as this case, were made to pay back the money. The state has not been lenient on this in the past, but seems to be ok with throwing away $1m without recovery nor punishment for not fulfilling the elected officials obligations to the community that they serve. I say throwing away because, if that money isn’t going to help train officers, buy equipment or provide for safe neighborhoods (ie the gala held by the Pensacola Opera), then another facet of the county budget must use those funds, which are taxpayers’ money to fulfill that void–or not as the case may be, leaving the community in the ranks of the highest crime within the state.

But looking past that insane judgment lapse, I’d like to take you through Friday before this press release came out.

Text message from deputy @2:45pm:

statewide grand jury with Morgan being biggest offender of LET violation. Governors office involved…… SAO told Haines today that wrong doing was found. Gov office is expected to order statewide audit of all funds. Eric looks like he died when I seen him.

I then messaged James Scaminaci of CJ’s Street Report to ask him if he could call the SAO to verify this info. In the past, I have been given the run around by the SAO; I figured he had more pull than I did. This was @3:17pm.

He replied @3:20pm:

I heard from a source today that something big was coming but did not link it to sao. Though he asked me about sao.

James called SAO and left message for Marcille @3:25pm. His message to me :

Marcille just left for a meeting about this very subject of grand jury investigating morgan. Spoke to his secty

Source forwarded me via email @3:32pm, the folllowing press release

Confused, I texted the deputy who contacted me and asked him if he was sure about what he told me.

Absolutely! Haines is still barricaded in his office. Not good news. Morgan is out of town. Just told he was talking to an attorney in Orlando on an issue the Sheriff’s Assn wasn’t covering.

Taking into account the totality of the events and the fact the ECSO admin was not relieved when the press release was issued, nor did they make some grandstand to say they were in the clear, I believe the SAO may have something else up their sleeve.

Stay tuned….Morgan and the BOCC are not out of the woods yet.

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According to a source, Leah Manning is talking to the State Attorney’s office, trying to make a deal to roll on her co-defendants, including her husband Douglas and “friends”, Mark Smith and Walter Thomas. This is intriguing because this is a logical move. However, her story is damning for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. There is chatter that one of the higher ups, that just abruptly left the ECSO, is possibly going to be named in deal.

But before anyone gets their hopes up, the State Attorney does not have the “greater good” in mind here. They want to make this whole situation “go away. Look for deals all around and the unnamed person who fled for his reputation, there is little hope that he will be prosecuted, because to make all this go away, the damage must be minimized.

Remember Haines did say there is no evidence against the deputies. The surveillance footage from inside Mark Smith’s house is damning, and it was taken into custody by Zach Ward, but Stephen Cappas was the primary investigator.

That in and of itself speaks volumes since Cappas only has the ability to cover shit up. From what I understand, that’s all he’s ever done.

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No what defies logic for you, Mrs. Patterson to be prosecuting this case knowing that you accepted a bribe not go after other deputies that did just what this man did. THAT IS WHAT DEFIES LOGIC. Ex-deputy charged with sex crimes won’t be ‘unfettered’ http://ow.ly/Qm6St